A Letter of Thanks to Minister Jo for Submitting a Memorandum Recommending Me謝趙相國上箚子薦進啓
云云。才非卓犖。過煩薦鶚之書。感至銘藏。空洒泣鮫之淚。竊以都宰相之位。摠朝廷之權。職所首行。莫推賢之爲急。人難膚識。在考實之惟精。知而不擧則頗類妨能。擧而不實則未免招謗。惟物論之歸允。合人心之取平。如某者。學靡該通。性惟狂狷。早擢春官之第。不思官路之難。初欲直前而進焉便登坦道。漸如自後而擠者反落窮坑。凡閱八年。未霑一命。琴爲無聞而絃絶。鳳髓莫連。釰因不試而塵生。鵜膏難瑩。時乎晚矣。命也何如。豈圖眷遇之非常。俯憫孤寒之寡援。曲收一介。仰達九重。苟被皇上曰可之音。卽關閣下專斷之手。吾事可必。不占亦知。公道如鈞衡而雖出無私。人情豈木石而頑然自若。恩將及於鮒轍。命已輕於鴻毛。苟有此身。其忘曷日云云。
And so forth. My talent is not outstanding, and yet you have troubled yourself to excess with a letter of recommendation. My feeling goes so far as to be carved upon my bones and kept there, and in vain I scatter tears such as the merman is said to shed.
When I consider quietly: when a man takes upon himself the seat of chief minister and holds the authority of the court in his hands, there is nothing more urgent among the duties he should first perform than pushing worthy men upward. Men are hard to know from their outward show, and so it hangs upon examining the truth of them with precision. To know a man and not raise him up is much the same as blocking talent; and to raise him up when he does not match the truth is not to escape inviting slander. Only when the opinion of the many returns upon him in trust does it accord with what the hearts of men hold even.
One like me is not broadly versed in learning, and my nature is mad and stubborn. Once I had been chosen in the examination of the Spring Office (春官), I did not consider the hardships of the path of office. At first I thought that if I went straight forward I should at once come upon a level road; but by degrees it was as though someone were pushing me from behind, and I fell instead into a pit of poverty. Through eight years together I did not obtain a single office. My zither had none to hear it and its strings were broken, so that not even phoenix glue could mend them; my sword, untried, had gathered dust, so that not even pelican's fat could polish it to brightness. The time was late, and what is to be done with fate?
How should I have thought that your regard would be beyond the ordinary, that you would look down and pity me, alone and poor and with few to help me, and would bend to take up such a one as I and report of me upward to the ninefold palace? Truly, that one should receive the word of His Majesty's approval hangs upon Your Excellency's hand, which decides it alone. That my business will surely come about I know without divining.
Though the impartial way is like a balance, and though what came forth was without partiality, how should the feelings of a man be as wood and stone, hardened and unmoved? Your kindness is about to reach the carp in the wheel-rut, and my life is already lighter than a goose's down. Truly, so long as this body is, on what day should I forget it? And so forth.